Jos High Court ruling did not ask Giwa to take over NFF – Dalung tells Reps

Finally honouring the summons by the House of Representatives, Thursday, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has declared that no court order asked clubowner, Mr. Chris Giwa, to take over the administration of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
It would be recalled that Giwa had stormed the NFF secretariat, last month, flowing a Jos High Court order which, according to him, mandated him to assume the Presidency of the Glass House in Abuja.
Dalung who was speaking during an interactive session between the House Committee on Sports chaired by Hon. Goni Lawal, accompanied by other top officials of the NFF led by vice president, Shehu Dikko, stressed that the court did not sack the Amaju Pinnick board, as claimed by Giwa
The minister, who is also a lawyer, argued that the Giwa case was already dead and what happened in April at a Jos High Court was ‘relisting.’
“When the Giwa group served a notice of discontinuance to the court in October 2014, the court struck the case and made it clear that the case was dead. I don’t know anyone else who has been able to raise the dead except Jesus Christ!
“What the court did on April 8 was simply to re-list the case for hearing. It did not sack the NFF board and certainly did not ask Giwa to go and take over the Federation.”
The interactive session followed a motion of ‘urgent national importance’ moved on the floor of the House of Representatives on May 16 and the lawmaker thereafter mandated its sports committee to handle the matter.
At Thursday’s session, Dalung, the Director of Legal Services in the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports, Olatigbe Johnson, and NFF’s Head of Legal, Okey Obi, established that there was currently no court order nullifying the election of the Pinnick-led NFF board. Dikko noted that there were clear channels for dispute resolution apart from the ordinary courts.
He noted that Mr. Giwa had taken his case to the highest sports court – Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS)– and lost. “If he had won at CAS, everyone in the Nigeria football family would have been obliged to submit to him. He lost. So, he should respect football rules and wait for the next elections.
“Some of the persons who took part in the ‘elections’ where Giwa claimed to have been ‘elected’, also participated in the Warri elections that brought in Amaju Pinnick! Yet, some of them are strangely clinging to a ‘mandate’ supposedly given to them alongside Giwa.” Dikko also referred to recent cases involving Egypt and Benin Republic, saying that the threat of a ban looms large.
“FIFA recently slammed a two–year ban on Benin Republic from all competitions because some persons went to court and stopped the elections.
“We have the case in Egypt where some persons went to court against elections that were conducted in 2012, and the court gave a ruling that the Minister of Sports should dissolve the Executive Committee.
The Minister of Sports in Egypt has refused to do that because he knows the consequences.”
However Article 68.2 of the FIFA Statutes states: “Recourse to ordinary courts of law is prohibited unless specifically provided for in the FIFA regulations. Recourse to ordinary courts for all types of provisional measures is also prohibited.”